MARSTON PLANTATION

The purpose of this web site is at least two-fold. First there is a focus on the genealogy and family history of Thomas Marston of Middlesex County, Virginia- his ancestors and descendants including the Mastin Branch. Also there is an interest in the other Colonial Virginia Marstons as potential relatives. Secondly there are other families that I have researched and as time goes by data on them will be posted. This web site is dedicated to those genealogists who have helped me in the past and to those that [hopefully] will help me in the future. Enjoy your visit !

“Marston’s Plantation it being the lands purchased of James Dudley by Thomas Marston deceased father to the said John Marston” [13 March 1715, John Marston lease to William Blackburne, Middlesex Co. Va., Deeds, Reel 3, p. 392, Virginia State Library]. Plantation, a name that conjures up images of the Old South and “Gone with the Wind”, was a name formerly applied also to farms of modest acreage. The above plantation or farm of John Marston was only 150 acres.

Language, handwriting, customs, & the meaning of words have changed since that early colonial period in America. Senior and Junior did not always mean father and son. Tobacco was often used for money. Even the calendar was different. The first day of the year was March 25 & not January 1 as it is today. To become a better genealogical researcher, it helps to transport ones 20^th/21^st Century mind back to the time era of the research being conducted. It’s important to know the history and customs of that earlier time.

A plantation is a place that is planted or under cultivation. This “genealogical plantation” has been planted with genealogy that has been cultivated for a long time; however you are invited to help with the continuing cultivation-pulling weeds, nurturing the crops, or even planting new crops or trees. Just as physical weeds that have been growing for a long time are harder to pull up- so also are the “genealogical weeds” of long term misinformation. Family trees sometimes need pruning also. Genealogy is always a “work in progress”. Then also you are welcome to just stop by and harvest the field (s). “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.” John 4:35.

Inspired at an early age by photos & stories told by the “old folks”, I’ve had a life-long interest in genealogy and family history. I’ve been listening, recording, & researching my family for nearly half a century [since the age of 10]. Most of my research has been conducted "the old fashioned way" by writing letters, traveling to courthouses, and viewing miles of microfilm. Starting with families residing in Owen County, Kentucky for generations, many of those have been traced back into Virginia & beyond.

My Marston line begins with Thomas Marston, who immigrated to America about 1666 and settled in Virginia. He resided for a time in Kingston Parish, Gloucester County Virginia and then later lived in Christ Church Parish, Middlesex County Virginia. Here he was a planter and a Clerk of the parish. He died there in 1704. My branch moved on to Culpeper County Virgina and then on to Franklin Co. Kentucky, where they were preceded by another branch that had moved through Spotsylvania County Virginia. There were other Marstons in early Colonial Virginia but their relationship to my branch has not been revealed by the research to date.